I woke up to a pain in my head. The room was purple, and I recognized it as the Phantoms troop hold that I was in before I blacked out. I saw an Elite walk through the hatch to the cockpit. I instinctivly reached for my Assault Rifle, but it wasn't there.

I stood up and quietly walked up to the hatch. Suddenly, it flew open and the Elite kicked me to the ground. The Split-face muttered something in his own language, and I stood up again. As I raised my fists to a defensive position, I wondered what I was getting myself into.

The Elite charged me, and I jumped out of the way. He turned around, and an Energy Sword emerged from his hand. He jumped at me, and I rolled out of the way. The Elite jumped again, and kicked me to the floor. I stood up, but decided to back down. The Elite delivered a high kick to my face, and I fell to the floor, passed out.

I woke up again, this time in a prison cell. Another marine was in there with me. "Hey," I said. "How are we going to get out of here?"

"We're not," the Marine, a Private First Class, said. "The Covenant have this whole ship patrolled, and the UNSC isn't going to send any ships to rescue two of us. And before you ask, the other prisoners are dead."

I stood up and looked out the force field cell door. Two Elites that I could see, maybe more, patrolled the room. The ship shook, and I found myself tossed to the floor as three other violent shakes occured. "What was that?" I asked quickly.

"Those were rockets from a UNSC craft," the marine said. "They might be coming for us after all."

'Or just trying to destroy the ship,' I thought. Twenty more rockets hit, and the Covenant ship shook so violently that I flew into the ceiling and hit the ground hard. Another rocket hit, and the Covenant ships sheild must be down, because the ship shook even worse.

Then, the Elites walked up to the cell and looked at us. Suddenly, the floor beneath the Elites ripped open, and a MAC round tore through, tearing the Elites into a thousand pieces and causing the force field to flash on and off. 'Good thing the round missed our cell,' I thought. "Come on, Private. We're getting out of here."

I grabbed a hidden signal beacon I had in my boot, and through it out of the force field into the room outside, just past the hole. I moved to get a better angle at the battle outside. Three Longswords chased a Seraph, and shot it down. A Pelican flew by, followed by seven Seraphs, in turn followed by five Longswords.

Then, the Pelican turned around, and shot up into the hole, coming up next to our cell. One of Seraphs followed, but slammed into the ceiling and blew apart. The Pelican fired a few quick rounds, and the force field dissapeared. The marine and I ran out, and were amazed at the compression the ship still had, even with the hole in its side.

We ran to the Pelican and climbed in. The Pelican doors shut and the Marine and I took a deep breath that we had been holding the whole run. I looked around. Baker and Jones sat, along with two other marines. "Here," Jones said. "Take this."

He handed me and the marine two new rifles, and not my trusty MA5B Assault Rifle either. "The guys at command are calling it a Battle Rifle," Baker said. "It fires pretty well, even if only three round bursts." I frowned. Three round bursts tend to lead to death in a close quarters firefight. "Don't worry, boss," Baker spoke up. "They're also issuing these Submachine Guns. Full auto."

The Pelican flew back to the UNSC ship. We climbed out, and saw through a viewscreen the battle unfolding. A single Covenant ship, the one we just left, was making a last, desperate charge at the three Human ships. Our ships fired their MAC Cannons, and the Covenant ship blew apart. It was victory, but only a small one as the war was far from over.

"Marines!" the Colonel said as he walked up. "Get some more ammo, a little bit of food, and get back on that Pelican! You can sleep on the way!" I ran off towards the cafeteria to grab some much needed food. Looks like we're doomed to fight without rest for the rest of our lives.